I wasn’t sure which category to put this in as it’s just a question, although I was wondering if there is an active departure or center controller, why is it on IFR departures when you check-in and there is no SID for the airport or the SID says for example “Fly RNWY heading and expect vectors” why is it that departure or center controllers never give heading or altitudes on departures towards your flight or general direction of flight. I feel like this would add to the realism and help the pilot’s plan departures. Usually always hear unable at this time, even when non-busy conditions are present when requesting vectors.
Just an idea/observation because otherwise, what’s the point of a departure controller in infinite flight when you can proceed en route?
Well, there are. There are three types of sid’s you’ll typically see. Radar vector departures, hybrid SIDs, and RNAV SIDS. RNAV sid’s are the ones where you can just use straight fixes, but the others do require some form of guidance from controllers. You can find guidance on these here:
The insight I can give, during my time as an IFATC controller this instruction to research the departure/arrival procedures and look at the charts was not required, and frankly somewhat discouraged in many circles. Your best bet is to pray you get the 1/10 controller who did look into the procedures for their airport, since as I mentioned it’s not a requirement for them to look at the charts and understand them. You could just self vector yourself to first fix and then proceed on course. That’s what I’ve done. Hope this helps. 🙂
Yea, I figured that it was not part of their training; thank you for confirming; I usually do the same was just always wondering why they don’t follow the published plates; it would add to the realism, even a command that says, " fly DCT" fix," or some altitude would be nice cause I just program the top altitude in the SID and technically if departure doesn’t clear you higher you can’t climb, But really insightful you seem like a great pilot! Thanks